Urban Pulse—A Geography of Serial Seduction: Urban Policy Transfer from Kuala Lumpur to Hyderabad

Abstract

Diverse strands of geographic inquiry share a concern for the role of seductive projections of various forms in shaping urban policy and material realities at a distance. We trace a case of urban policy transfer from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia to Hyderabad, India. Drawing on our respective empirical investigations of the two Asian cities, we consider a geography of urban policy replication. At one level, this involves direct political connections between the two cities and, in particular, KL as a "model" for Hyderabad. Yet we are also concerned with identifying broader intra-Asia policy networks and practices that demand critical geographic attention. We conclude with some reflections on the implications of the KL-Hyderabad case for conceptions of and ways of doing urban geography. We argue that the kind of urban geography traced here forms an important complement to more conventional academic practices based on sustained engagement with specific urban sites, lives, and transformations.

Keywords:

• seduction
• urban policy
• Kuala Lumpur
• Hyderabad
• intra-Asia networks